London is the city that will be hosting the twelfth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup. This is the fourth time England will be hosting what is easily one of the greatest shows or greatest sporting events in 2019. Ten teams will be participating in the sporting event starting May 30th. The hosts, England start of as the favorites although India has hopes of taking the trophy home. The ten countries will face each other in a round robin-format. The last round-robin fixture will be on the sixth of July, whereby four teams will qualify to the semi-finals. The semis will then be from the 9th to the 11th of July. The finals will take place at London’s Lord’s Cricket Ground on the 14th of July. You can easily watch this match on Crichd. Crichd is a platform for watching cricket matches.
The biggest names in cricket including Virat Kohli from India, West Indies’ Chris Gayle and the English team’s Joe Root will be playing in the tournament with the hopes of winning the coveted cup. England may be the favorites from their previous performances but there’s also West Indies which has on two occasions won the World Twenty20. Their team is also strong with power-hitters and is therefore very capable of winning. Australia is also considered one of the teams that could actually win this despite not being too lucky in the last twelve months.
There are no newcomers as all the teams playing have at some point participated in the ICC Cricket World Cup. That said, Afghanistan is the least experienced. They only made their debut into the World Cup four years ago.
The International Cricket Council’s global broadcaster for the tournament happens to be Star Sports. It is an Indian network which is Disney-owned. The network broadcasts primarily to India through its subsidiary, star TV. It also reaches an audience in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri-Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.
Thanks to Star, a TV and digital audience of 1.5 billion people can follow the live ICC events. The network is looking to meet its target revenue of $143 million for this cricket competition.
The International Cricket Council also has over twenty brands as commercial partners for the event in both England and Wales, with most of them coming from India. The ICC receives the revenue from the broadcast and sponsors while the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) gets the revenues from the publications and tickets. They have actually pledged to put what they earn back into the game. The match venue will then take the revenues from hospitality, car parking, food and drinks.
The demand for tickets has been very high. In fact, more people have applied for the tickets with the number standing at over three million applicants for only 650,000 tickets available. The most sought after tickets are those for India’s match with Pakistan at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Cricket’s popularity has increased over the years. The ICC’s register of official nations playing cricket stands at 104. It has different competitions taking place globally.
The International Cricket Council has however faced criticism for reducing the number of teams in the tournament to just ten. The 2015 edition featured fourteen teams.
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